Teio Meedendorp: The role of historical postcards in art research

Teio Meedendorp

The art historian Teio Meedendorp works as a senior researcher in the Van Gogh Museum, and for some time has collected historic postcards of the places in France where Vincent van Gogh worked. The photos generally give a good impression of how things looked in Van Gogh’s day, and they therefore sometimes help to more closely identify the locations depicted in his oeuvre, but they are especially useful in determining the extent to which Van Gogh depicted reality to suit his own purposes. As it happens, Van Gogh also detested photography.

Belle Époque

Some of the photographs of Paris made by the Séeberger brothers Jules, Louis and Henri during the Belle Époque were also published as popular postcards, including by the Kunzli brothers. On Thursday evening 27 March Teio Meedendorp will explain in detail what these old postcards could mean for his research.